ATLANTA — (CNN) A leading contender to chair the Democratic National Committee said President Donald Trump has already taken actions that “legitimately raise the question of impeachment.”
Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, a progressive backed by Bernie Sanders and many of his supporters, said Trump has already violated the Constitution and called for an investigation to “make sure that nobody can monetize the presidency and make profit off it for our own gain.”
His comments came as the eight candidates vying to chair the Democratic National Committee participated in a debate at the CNN Center in Atlanta just three days before the party gathers in this city to select its new leadership. Other contenders also called for hard lines against Trump.
“We have seen from the get-go that this person wants to turn the clock back, and the Democratic Party needs to take the fight to Donald Trump,” former Labor Secretary Tom Perez said. “When we lead with our values, when we lead with our conviction, that’s how we succeeds.”
Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, called Trump a “computer virus in the American political system.”
“Yes, we’ve got to take the fight to him. But we can’t let him dominate our imagination, because it’s our values and our candidates that matter,” he said.
Sam Ronan, an Air Force veteran and Democratic activist, called Trump a “draft-dodger.”
Revisiting the 2016 split
Democrats are days away from choosing a new party leader in a race that will help determine how to fight Trump. But to get there, they also are revisiting the bitter split of the 2016 presidential primary. The wounds of that race were ripped open over a question about whether the race between Sanders and Hillary Clinton was “rigged.”
After Perez sought to avoid directly answering the question — saying the party had lost trust in its voters and created a “crisis of relevance” — Ronan jumped in to call the contest “rigged” and say Sanders’ supporters felt excluded at last summer’s Democratic convention.
Buttigieg said Democrats don’t want to make the mistake of reliving the 2016 race.
“We can’t allow this to devolve into factional struggle,” he said.
Harrison scolded Ronan over his use of the word “rigged,” and said as an early-primary state chair, he sees educating voters about the primary process as crucial. “Language is very, very important in this,” he said.
Perez and Ellison are at the forefront of an eight-candidate field. Perez is picking up the endorsements of the heads of the Democratic National Committee’s caucuses for women, Hispanics, Asian-Americans and rural Americans. Ellison is picking up the mantle of the insurgency that fueled Sanders’ presidential run. Buttigieg, meanwhile, got the backing of former DNC chairman Howard Dean.
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As they find themselves in the political wilderness, the candidates have stressed the need to face Trump with a united front and rebuild the party. They are also vying to lead an organization beset by accusations, partly fueled by revelations in stolen emails published by WikiLeaks, that it worked to secure the presidential nomination for Hillary Clinton over Sanders.
Aides and vote-counters for several candidates say they believe Perez — who says he has commitments of support from 180 of the DNC’s 447 voting members — has a narrow lead over Ellison. But both sides admit they don’t yet have the votes necessary to clinch the job.
It could turn other contenders — especially South Carolina Democratic chairman Jaime Harrison, Idaho Democratic Party executive director Sally Boynton Brown and Buttigieg — into kingmakers.
Perez is rolling out his latest endorsements Wednesday from leaders of four DNC groups in a statement first obtained by CNN.
“Tom is committed to ensuring the DNC not only listens to diverse voices from all states and territories but will include the diverse members of the DNC in rebuilding the organization and elect Democrats everywhere,” said Bel Leong-Hong, chair of the DNC’s Asian American and Pacific Islanders Caucus.
“He knows that in order to fight back against Trump and Republicans, we must unite as Democrats. He knows that we can’t just organize at a church every fourth October, we must organize 12 months a year,” said Iris Martinez, the chair of the DNC’s Hispanic Caucus.
DNC Women’s Caucus chair Lottie Shackelford and DNC Rural Council chair Betty Richie are also supporting Perez.
“We need a DNC chair who is committed to listening to voters and communicating our message to both urban and rural areas, and Tom is committed to doing that,” Richie said.
Outsider gaining steam
Buttigieg picked up an endorsement Wednesday morning from Dean, the former Vermont governor and DNC chair whose famed “50-state strategy” is the model each of the candidates in the current race say they believe the party needs.
Buttigieg has positioned himself as a break from the Sanders vs. Clinton proxy battle — with Ellison backed by Sanders and Perez supported by many Clinton allies — that the DNC race has become.
Ellison got a surprising endorsement of his political acumen on Wednesday morning in the form of a tweet from the President.
“One thing I will say about Rep. Keith Ellison, in his fight to lead the DNC, is that he was the one who predicted early that I would win!” Trump tweeted.
Ellison had already gained a key supporter over the weekend when New Hampshire Democratic chairman Ray Buckley dropped out and urged his supporters to back the Minnesota congressman.
It was “a real momentum-builder” in Ellison’s favor, said Michael Kapp, a DNC member from California who backs Ellison.
“Ray has been on the DNC for a long time, and more than anyone else, has a deep knowledge base of how the DNC has operated in the past and what needs to be changed,” Kapp said.
Primary challenges
Harrison, the South Carolina Democrat chairman, issued a stern call on party members not to launch primary challenges against the 10 Democratic senators in states that Trump won in 2016.
He said Democrats would find themselves in a “permanent minority” because the GOP needs just seven more Senate seats for a filibuster-proof majority there, and just one more statehouse to call and control a constitutional convention.
“We don’t have the time, the energy — and all the people we are fighting for each and every day don’t have time for these purity tests. We have to fight back against the Republicans; we can’t fight against each other,” Harrison said.
His comments come after a liberal group called “We Will Replace You” was launched, threatening primary challenges to Democrats who don’t oppose Trump at every stop.
Other contenders said the DNC shouldn’t stand in the way of primary challenges. Perez said that “the role of the DNC chair is to let the process run its course.” Ellison said “the role of the DNC is to be neutral and fair to all primary contestants.”
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